Sprong decision

Last night Daniel Sprong made his debut with the Anaheim Ducks and it was quite the successful one. He didn’t quite Mario Lemieux (or Jake Guentzel) it, but he scored on his first shot on his second shift. It was a goal where Sprong showed up his shooting talent.

A goalie on his angle should probably not let that in, although even if the net was empty shooting from that angle, at that velocity, and that placement is a true talent. He’ll probably score some goals from easier angles with the Ducks as well. He will probably get more chances to do just that.

Sprong played with Adam Henrique and Nick Ritchie on the Ducks second line. He played 13:28 and some of it even came in the third period. He had a CF% of 54.84, a SCF% of 85.71, and a HDCF% of 80.00. All in all an impressive debut. His 5v5 goal ties him with Carl Hagelin and Bryan Rust, only one behind Letang and Cullen, and a third of the way there to Brassard, Simon, Sheahan, and Pearson. Given that he’s only played 128 minutes this year his 5v5 points per 60 is going to be pretty volatile. It is up to 1.86 after last night.

I am not going to be providing daily updates about Daniel Sprong. He is going to have some clunkers and he is also going to score some goals with a more favorable deployment. I just find it funny it took all of one game for him to score using his shooting talent and had the majority of scoring chances and shot share when on the ice. We’ll see how this plays out, but if Sprong produces even at a third line level you will need to ask the question why Mike Sullivan couldn’t get out of his own way to at least find out about a player with his specific skillset. It’s harder to find players that can shoot and skate like Sprong than it is to find some bland ~47% possession player that scores at a fourth line rate.